ES2312832T3 - METHOD OF CONVERSION OF HYDROCARBONS. - Google Patents

Abstract

Process for the preparation of fibrous carbon which comprises contacting a metallic catalyst with a carbon-containing gas at elevated temperature, characterized in that said catalyst is sponge iron.

Description

Hydrocarbon conversion method.

This invention relates to a process. for the conversion of hydrocarbons into a product that does not damage the environment, in particular in coal, more particularly nanofibers carbon (CNF) comprising carbon, also known as filamentous carbon or carbon fibrils.

The CO2 emissions into the atmosphere caused by the combustion of hydrocarbons such as natural gas, in recent years have become a very important environmental problem. Therefore, many resources have been applied to the development of methods and devices for the conversion into hydrocarbon energy such as natural gas, in which CO2 emissions into the atmosphere can be avoided or at least reduced significantly.
tively.

In the extraction of hydrocarbons from underground deposits, the case in which the Liquid hydrocarbons are the desired product and hydrocarbons gaseous, in particular C 1-3 hydrocarbons and in  particularly methane, they are extracted in large quantities not desirable. One solution has been to return the gases to the tanks underground, however, this is expensive. Another solution has been simply burn unwanted gases: however, this generates carbon dioxide that is not desirable from the point of view environmental.

The conversion into hydrocarbon energy normally it includes the combustion that produces water and CO2. The CO2 emission can be reduced by separating the emission into a fraction rich in CO2, which is deposited, for example, by injection in an oil field, and a fraction poor in CO2 that is discharged into the atmosphere The necessary equipment is uncomfortable and expensive, and usually only suitable for installations big.

It has long been known that the interaction of gaseous hydrocarbon and metal surfaces can lead to dehydrogenation and the growth of "filaments" of carbon on the metal surface. More recently, it has been found that said carbon filaments, which are carbon fibers having a diameter of about 3 to 100 nm and a length of about 0.1 to 1000 µm, have interesting and potentially useful properties, e.g. eg, the ability to act as deposits to store hydrogen (see, for example, Chambers et al ., in J. Phys. Chem . B 102: 4253-4256 (1998) and Fan et al . in Carbon 37: 1649- 1652 (1999)).

However, said hydrocarbon conversion into hydrogen and carbon is endothermic and has not been proposed as a medium of elimination of hydrocarbons or a means of generating energy.

The authors of the invention have now been given notice that using said dehydrogenation reaction the gaseous hydrocarbon can become a valuable product in trade and easily transportable, specifically coal, without no significant production of CO2 emissions.

Thus, seen from one aspect, the invention provides a method for the conversion into hydrocarbon coal soda extracted from a natural hydrocarbon deposit, whose method comprises contacting said gaseous hydrocarbon at a high temperature in a reactor with a catalyst capable of converting said hydrocarbon into carbon and hydrogen; separate the hydrogen produced from the unconverted hydrocarbon; burn said hydrogen to generate energy; and use the energy generated to heating said reactor or a gaseous hydrocarbon flow thereto, or heat or power equipment that consumes heat or energy electric

Seen from another aspect, this invention provides equipment to convert gaseous hydrocarbon into coal,  said equipment comprising a reactor vessel having a gas inlet valve and a gas outlet valve;

a separator to separate hydrogen from a gas containing hydrocarbon and hydrogen;

a gas conduit from said outlet valve of gas to said separator;

a combustion chamber arranged to burn hydrogen from said separator to generate energy; Y

an energy transferor arranged for transfer energy from said combustion chamber to said container of the reactor (e.g., by heating the reactor vessel directly or by heating the gas flow to said valve input) or to additional equipment that consumes heat or energy electric

Additional equipment that consumes heat or energy electrical can be any equipment that requires such input, e.g. e.g., an electricity generator or heating equipment air or water, for example, a central heating system.

Although hydrogen separates from hydrocarbon non-converted gas, so that the product of its combustion does not It has essentially carbon dioxide, the separation can only be partial and results in a decrease rather than a elimination Total CO2 emission.

Separated hydrogen normally contains no more than 30 mol% hydrocarbon, especially no more than 10% in moles, particularly not more than 5 mol%, more particularly not more than 1% in moles.

This hydrogen separated, at least in part, preferably burned to provide heat to the reactor. This it can be directly or indirectly or both, p. ex. using steam of combustion in a heat exchange and / or to boost a electric power generator, whose output can be used to heat the reactor or the gas inlet to it. Normally the hydrogen will burn in an internal combustion engine, however,  the conversion into water is considered using a converter Catalytic is encompassed by the term burn.

The gaseous hydrocarbon used in the method of invention, preferably taken directly from a well of hydrocarbon, optionally after transferring to a pipe, but preferably at the head of the well. But nevertheless, alternatively, it can be packaged, for example, in drums, before to use

The catalyst used in the method of the invention will normally be a metal as described by De Jong et al . in Catal. Rev. Sci. Eng. 42: 481-510 (2000) or Rodriguez et al . in J. Mater. Res . 8: 3233-3250 (1993), whose contents are incorporated by reference. Thus, the metal catalyst used according to the invention is preferably selected from the metal groups 5 to 10, e.g. ex. nickel, iron, cobalt, vanadium, molybdenum, chromium and ruthenium and their alloys, for example Fe / Ni, Cu / Ni alloys etc. Lanthanides can also be used. In general, it seems that the requirement is that the metal can form carbides that are unstable at the temperatures used in the coal production process. Precious metals, such as Pt, Au and Ag, can also be deposited on said metals or alloys. Preferably, especially the transition metal of the catalyst is nickel, iron or cobalt or a mixture of two or three thereof, e.g. ex. Ni / Fe. Preferably, in particular the transition metal content of the metal catalyst is at least 50% by weight nickel, e.g. eg, Ni 70% / Fe 30% or Ni 100%.

The catalyst may also include a promoter, p. eg, a structural promoter such as aluminum.

More preferably, the catalyst used is a porous metal catalyst comprising a transition metal or an alloy thereof, e.g. eg, as described in the document PCT / GB03 / 002221, a copy of which is presented in this document and whose content is incorporated herein by reference.

Porous is meant metals with a large specific surface, usually Raney metals that are produced by leaching a metal from a metal alloy. The person skilled in the art will easily understand that the term porous cannot be applied in this context to grids or meshes formed from solid metals, that is to say non-porous. For porous particulate metal catalysts, the specific surface area (e.g., determined by gas adsorption) will normally be at least 20m2 / g, more preferably at least 40m2 / g, especially at minus 50 m 2 / g, p. eg, up to 200 m 2 / g, for example 50-100 m 2 / g. The modal particle size, before carbon formation begins, will normally be in the range of 1 to 300 µm, preferably 5 to 100 µm, especially 10 to
80 µm, more especially 20 to 40 µm. In addition, porous refers to the metal catalyst rather than any catalyst support, that is, a solid metal catalyst deposited on a porous support, e.g. eg, silica or alumina, is not a porous metallic catalyst.

Preferably, especially the catalyst metallic is produced by total or partial separation of an element metal of an alloy, for example separation of aluminum from a aluminum alloy-transition metal. These transition aluminum-metal alloys or intermetallic from which aluminum has been separated, are commercially available (for example, with the trade name Amperkat® by H.C. Starck GmbH & Co AG, Goslar, Germany) or se can prepare from aluminum alloys by leaching with acid, e.g. ex. nitric acid. The catalyst examples Amperkat® available at H.C. Starck include Amperkat SK-NiFe 6816, SK-Ni 3704, SK-Ni 5544, and SK-Ni 5546 which They contain respectively 4-7% by weight of Al: 62-67% by weight of Ni: 26-30% in Fe weight, 4-7% by weight of Al: 93-96% by weight of Ni: <1% by weight of Fe, 5-9% by weight of Al: 90-95% by weight Ni: <0.6% by weight of Fe, and 5-9% by weight of Al: 90-95% by weight of Ni: <0.6% by weight of Fe. These Amperkat catalysts have a grain size of approximately 80 µm (i.e. 80-90% less than 80 µm), a solid concentration of approximately 20-50% and an apparent density (per aqueous catalyst suspension) from about 1300 to 1800 kg / m 3. The use of SK-Ni 5546 is preferred.

The catalyst is preferably particulate, and conveniently has a particle size as it has described above, or from 10 nm to 100 µm, preferably from 50 nm to 1000 nm, especially 80 to 200 nm.

The authors of the invention also propose improve the economy of coal production, using a porous iron catalyst, that is, spongy iron (iron reduced directly). The spongy iron has the advantage important that it is cheap, thus offering a cheap alternative to previously used transition metal catalysts. In addition, it has no elements that are normally present in the iron scrap such as copper, zinc, tin, chromium and molybdenum, etc. It has a low sulfur and phosphorus content.

Fluffy iron means the product metallic formed when iron ore is reduced with carbon to a temperature below the melting point of iron (i.e. less than 1538 ° C). It is porous in nature and is normally used To make steel.

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Although preferably used in a method for convert hydrocarbons according to the invention, the use of spongy iron is new and therefore provides an appearance Additional of the invention.

The gas used in the process of the invention it can be any gas containing hydrocarbons, e.g. eg C 1-3 hydrocarbons (such as, for example, methane, ethane, propane, ethene, ethyne, etc.), naphthenes or products aromatics of a natural underground hydrocarbon reservoir (p. ex. oil well). Preferably, the gas is or comprises methane. Preferably, especially the gas used is a gas that Contains hydrocarbons separated from oil extracted from a well of oil, optionally after treatment to separate hydrocarbons having four or more carbon atoms per molecule, water, nitrogen and carbon dioxide, and preferably treated to separate the poisons for the catalyst, e.g. eg sulfur compounds and possibly halogens. Can be used conventional means to eliminate the poison. Content methane from said "natural" gas will generally be in the 80 to 95 mol% range.

In a particularly preferred embodiment the gas comprises methane and carbon monoxide, since this reduces the necessary power supply, since the reaction of Carbon production is less endothermic with carbon monoxide than with methane alone. In particular, it is especially preferred that the feed gas comprises methane and carbon monoxide in a molar ratio from 1:99 to 99: 1, more particularly 10:90 to 90:10. Thus, it is preferred that the gas comprises methane and monoxide of carbon in a molar ratio of 1:99 to 99: 1, preferably the gas being introduced into the reaction vessel in at least two currents, with at least one of the substantially no currents carbon monoxide and being at a temperature higher than another stream containing carbon monoxide, e.g. eg, using a first stream containing carbon monoxide at a temperature of 300 ° C or less and a second stream containing methane at a temperature of 600 ° C or higher, or using only one gas stream at a temperature of 300 ° C or less, e.g. eg 200-290 ° C.

It is also especially preferred that gas fed into the reactor, for at least part of the period of reaction, contain a small proportion of hydrogen, e.g. ex. 1 a 20 mol%, more preferably 2 to 10 mol%. This has the effect of reducing the activity of the carbon in the catalyst metal (it is say, the rate of absorption of carbon by metal) and serves to prolong coal production, increase yield total and reduce the percentage by weight of the coal product that It is in the form of amorphous coal. Hydrogen can be added to the gas supply to the reactor, or the gas discharge from the reactor is can recycle, in part, to the reactor to provide the content of desired hydrogen. However, depending on the design of the reactor, the hydrogen generated by coal production can be enough to provide adequate hydrogen content in the bed of coal / catalyst.

The use of hydrogen as a feed gas component, as mentioned before. Without  However, the need for hydrogen entry can be reduced or avoid if the reactor is built to provide the internal recirculation of the gases that leave the bed of catalyst.

In the method of the invention, the production of coal is preferably made to give coal in an amount of at least 1 g of carbon per gram of metal catalyst, plus preferably at least 10 g / g, still more preferably at less 50 g / g, especially at least 100 g / g, more especially at minus 150 g / g, p. e.g., 100 to 400 g / g, usually 150 to 250 g / g

The process of the invention is usually will perform by flowing the gas containing hydrocarbon at catalyst length

The hydrogen produced is separated, at least in part of the reactor gas flow, so that it can burn to provide a heat source for the reaction. Also I know prefers that the gas flow to the catalyst contains hydrogen, e.g. ex. 1 to 20 mol%, for example 5 to 15 mol%, preferably 8 to 11%, and for this purpose it is preferred that remove a part of the gas flow from the reactor and mix with the gas flow containing hydrocarbon to the catalyst. Hydrogen produced can also be separated from the gas flow within the reactor. One option is to separate the hydrogen from the catalyst bed. using membranes (for example, ceramic membranes) followed by a subsequent separation and discharge of the coal product.

The process of the invention is carried out at high temperature, usually 350 to 1200 ° C, preferably 400 at 700 ° C, more preferably 500 to 680 ° C, especially 525 to 630 ° C, p. ex. approximately 600 ° C. In particular, preferably the temperature is below 900 ° C, more especially below 850 ° C, particularly below 800 ° C, especially below 750 ° C, p. ex. less than 700ºC, and higher than 550ºC, especially higher at 600 ° C, particularly higher than 630 ° C. It has been found that working temperatures between 630 and 680ºC give rise to rates of coal production and yields especially good.

The gas flow to the catalyst preferably it is at high pressure, e.g. ex. 2 to 15 bar, especially 3 to 6 bar. The use of pressures greater than 15 bar is not preferred when the Methane is the source gas for coal, due to the adsorption of inadequate methane

Quite surprisingly, the activity of catalyst and performance can be maintained if the temperature reaction is increased by also increasing the gas pressure and vice versa. However, the use of a prolonged reaction time (or residence time in the reactor for a process of continuous production) tends to increase the percentage of coal amorphous in the coal product. By reaction time or from permanence means the time the catalyst / carbon is in the reactor under the reaction conditions. The reaction time (or residence time as appropriate) is preferably up to 30 hours, more preferably up to 10 hours, especially up to 3 hours

The catalyst can be presented as a region of the reaction with the gas flow from the bottom to the top. However, alternatively, the gas is passed along a bed of catalyst in a generally horizontal direction. For this purpose, the reactor may be a substantially horizontal tube, which optionally has a cross-sectional profile that increases in the direction of the gas flow. Since the catalyst bed will expand as carbon generation progresses, since the coating of carbon on the catalyst particles causes the particles to adhere to the reactor walls, and since the compression of the catalyst bed reduces the speed of carbon growth, the bottom wall of the reactor may be provided with a downward slope in at least one part after the initial position of the catalyst bed. Said horizontal reactor design has the benefit that the coal product is naturally compacted during production without any significant adverse effect on the coal yield. Typically, the carbon can be compacted in this way at a density of about 0.4 to 0.9 g / cm 3, more typically 0.5 to 0.7 g / cm 3. Without compaction, the density is usually 0.4 to
0.5 g / cm3. Alternatively, the catalyst / carbon bed can be mechanically agitated, for example, to improve the distribution of gas and heat and / or to facilitate the flow of the coal product into an outlet.

The method of the invention can be performed in continuously or discontinuously. In the first case, the reactor in the that the method is carried out may be provided with means for introduce new contribution catalyst at the current end above the catalyst bed and to separate the carbon from the end downstream of the catalyst bed, e.g. ex. tanks separable sedimentation. In the production of coal products, in particular for bulk applications, a design could be used of reactor similar to reactor designs used in industry of polyolefins. These reactors are designed to achieve favorable mass transport and enhance the reactivity of gas molecules that react on metal surfaces catalytically active.

The reactor used in the method of the invention it will conveniently have a volume of 10 to 100 m3, preferably from 50 to 70 m 3 which allows a content of Total product in thousands of kilograms. Reactor volume normally it will be at least 10 liters per kg / hour of production of Coal. For continuous operation, they can usually be achieved methane feed rates from 500 to 2000 kg / hour, p. ex. 1000 to 1500 kg / hour, and coal separation speeds of 200 to 2000 kg / hour, p. ex. 750 to 1250 kg / hour. Power supply necessary to operate said reactor will normally be hundreds of kW, p. ex. 100 to 1000 kW, more normally 500 to 750 kW. Expressed alternatively, energy demand normally will be in the range of 1 to 5 kW / kgC. hour -1, p. ex. 2-3.5 kW / kgC. hour -1. On a small scale, the power supply in the reactor can be achieved by external heating of the reactor or by inclusion within the reactor of heating means or heat exchange elements connected to a heat source. However, as the reactor size will be necessary to heat the feed gas which is supplied to the reactor, e.g. e.g., at temperatures of 300 to 1200 ° C, more preferably 300 to 1000 ° C, especially 500 to 900 ° C, more especially 800 at 850 ° C. To minimize deactivation of catalyst, the heated feed gas is preferably feeds into a bed of catalyst / stirred carbon in a plurality of points or along all the bottom surface of a bed gas fluidized. When the feed gas includes monoxide carbon and methane, carbon monoxide is preferably enter at a lower temperature (eg <300 ° C), for example by a separate feed pipe, e.g. ex. to avoid dusting metal feed pipes ferrous.

Since, as mentioned before, the Catalyst bed compression slows the formation of coal, the reactor in which the method of the invention is preferably provided with means for stirring the catalyst bed When the catalyst bed is a bed horizontal fluidized said stirring can be performed by the gas flow along the bed. However, when the flow of gas is substantially horizontal, the reactor is preferably provided with mixers that move or static downstream of the beginning of the catalyst bed. When the method is going to take discontinuously, the procedure for generating coal can be slowed down or stopped towards the end of each batch by compression of the catalyst / carbon bed, either actively or passive allowing the catalyst / carbon bed itself to compress against the end of the reaction zone in the reactor.

In general, the coal produced by the method of the invention will be subjected to compaction after production and / or mechanical agitation (eg grinding) after production. The carbon product is in the form of fibrous particles (e.g. "hairballs"), and grinding can release the fibers if you want a fibrous product while compaction can be use to increase the density and mechanical strength of the product.

The gas removed from the reactor is preferably passes through a separator in which hydrogen is separated by formation of metal hydride. The pellets of a metal hydride in a column absorb hydrogen produced at a low temperature and then the absorbed hydrogen can be recovered by raising the column temperature Alternatively, hydrogen can be separate by passing the gas through a membrane permeable to hydrogen, e.g. eg, a palladium membrane, which is not permeable to the gas components that contain coal. Adsorption by pressure swing (PSA) is also a principle of separation alternative that can be used. Another method of separation that Can use involves the use of polymer membranes. These membranes Polymer are commercially available to separate hydrogen and other gaseous components. Then the resulting gas with a Reduced hydrogen content can be recycled to the reactor.

Hydrogen can be absorbed using others metals, if desired, p. e.g., Mg, Mg / Ni, Ca / Ni, La / Ni, Fe / Ti, Ti / Cr, etc.

In a particularly preferred aspect, the Catalyst undergoes prior initiation or treatment. This serves to increase the speed of coal production and the coal yield and can be achieved with any catalyst for coal production, that is, not only with porous metal catalysts, for a limited period of exposure to a feed gas with reduced content of or without hydrogen at a temperature lower than the reaction temperature in The main stage of coal production. Said treatment Preferably preferably it is under the conditions of the procedure in which the carbon activity of the catalyst is greater than in the Main stage of coal production. Therefore this procedure comprises in a first stage contacting a catalyst to produce coal with a first gas containing hydrocarbon at a first temperature during a first period of time and subsequently contacting said catalyst with a second gas containing hydrocarbon at a second temperature for a second period of time, characterized in that said first gas has a lower mole percent of hydrogen (H2) that said second gas, said first temperature is lower than said second temperature, and said first period is shorter than said second period. If a graphite contact greater than carbon product, the first temperature can be reduced and / or It can increase the second temperature.

In this aspect of the invention, the catalyst preferably it is a transition metal or lanthanide or a alloy thereof, especially a transition metal and more especially a porous metal, in particular a metal containing Nickel, especially a Raney metal. Temperature, pressure and gas composition, in the second period are preferably as They have been described before for coal production. Temperature in the first period it is preferably in the range of 400 to 600 ° C, especially 450 to 550 ° C, more especially 460 to 500 ° C. He mole percent hydrogen in the first period preferably it is 0 to 2 mol%, especially 0 to 1% mol moles, more especially 0 to 0.25 mol%, particularly 0 to 0.05 mol% The pressure in the first period is preferably from 5 to 10 bar, especially 6 to 9 bar. The duration of the first period preferably is 1 to 60 minutes, more especially 2 to 40 minutes, particularly 5 to 15 minutes.

This pretreatment or initiation of catalyst causes the catalyst to become a chipboard of catalyst / carbon comprising particles of a metal that It contains coal that have carbon on its surface.

Before this previous treatment, if desired catalyst can be treated with hydrogen at elevated temperature, e.g. eg, to reduce any surface rust.

The coal produced in the procedure of the The invention can be processed after removal from the reactor, e.g. ex. to remove the catalyst material, to separate the fibers from carbon of the amorphous material, mix with additives, or for compaction Catalyst removal usually involves acid or base treatment; the separation of carbon fibers it can involve, for example, dispersion in a liquid and sedimentation (e.g. centrifugation), possibly combined with other stages such as magnetic separation; the treatment with additive may involve, for example, the deposition of a material additional catalytically active on coal, so that the coal will then act as a catalyst vehicle, or absorption of hydrogen in coal; and the compaction can be used to produce shaped carbon articles, e.g. ex. pellets, rods, etc.

The processing of the coal product for reduce the catalyst content in it can also be achieve by heating, p. e.g., at a temperature higher than 1000 ° C, preferably greater than 2000 ° C, for example from 2200 to 3000 ° C The total ash content is also reduced Significantly for this treatment.

The removal of the catalyst from the product of coal can also be performed by exposure to a flow of carbon monoxide, preferably at temperature and pressure high, p. ex. at least 50 ° C and at least 20 bar, preferably from 50 to 200ºC and 30 to 60 bar. The CO stream can be recycled after deposition of any metal carbonyls dragged to a higher temperature, e.g. ex. 230º at 400ºC.

As a result of said temperature and / or carbon monoxide treatment can produce a carbon with especially low metal content, e.g. ex. a metal content less than 0.2% by weight, especially less than 0.1% by weight, particularly less than 0.05% by weight, more particularly less than 0.01% by weight, e.g. ex. as low as 0.001% by weight.

The publications to which it has been made reference herein are incorporated herein by reference.

Now the method will be described in more detail and equipment of the invention, with reference to the example and drawing that accompanies, in which:

Figure 1 is a schematic drawing of a realization of the equipment of the invention.

Figure 1 schematically shows the construction of a team according to the invention. The gas that contains hydrocarbon, preferably gas containing methane, enters the reactor vessel 2 through an inlet pipe of gas 14 and inlet valve 18. The discharge gas from the vessel from the reactor comes out of the gas outlet valve 19 and the pipeline gas outlet 3. The discharged gas is fed to separator 4, which in the form shown it comprises two chambers separated by a palladium membrane 5. Hydrogen separates from the discharge gas and it is fed by supply pipe 7 to the combustion chamber 9 where it burns, p. e.g., using air, oxygen or enriched air with oxygen or a mixture of oxygen / inert gas. The pipe of hydrogen supply 7 may be provided with an exchanger of heat 16 to transfer energy to the gas supply of hydrocarbon or air supply.

In the embodiment shown, the supply of air for the combustion chamber is carried by a pipe 6 air supply to the separator by heat exchanger 12.

Exhaust gases from the combustion chamber they are discharged by the exhaust pipe 10 which, in the embodiment shown, is provided with heat exchangers 11 and 12 for heat the hydrocarbon and air supply pipes.

The electrical energy generated by the chamber of combustion is used to heat the reactor vessel and / or the hydrocarbon supply or to power the generator electricity 20.

The hydrogen-poor gas from separator 4 is removed by the outlet pipe 8, discharging nothing, some or all by pipe 13 or being fed by pipe 13 to a Burner, not shown. The remaining part is mixed with the source hydrocarbon gas (eg methane or natural gas) in the mixer 15 before feeding, by heat exchanger 11, to the supply pipe 14. The source gas is supplied preferably through the inlet pipe 1 at a pressure of Approximately 200 bar The mixer 15 may be in the form of a ejector pump 15 which is driven by hydrocarbon gas source that is depressurized from a pressure of approximately 200 bar to 1-5 bar.

The reactor 2 can be a bed reactor fluidized built with minimal pressure drop. The reactor it can also be built in a way that allows replacement the catalyst is deactivated and the coal removed while new catalyst is added. The reactor should be compact, since The heat loss is proportional to the surface area.

The combustion chamber 9 can be, by example, any type of internal combustion engine that works with a mixture of air / hydrogen, e.g. eg, a piston engine, a Wankel engine or a turbine.

The combustion chamber exhaust gas normally it will have a temperature of 500-1400ºC, p. eg, around 900 ° C.

When a palladium membrane is used, in the air it is preheated by heat exchange with the exhaust gas of the combustion chamber, p. ex. in heat exchanger 12, before of sending it to separator 4, at a temperature normally of at minus 400 ° C in order to avoid a temperature gradient pronounced across the membrane. The mixture of air and hydrogen then it must be cooled with cold air or probably with gas natural entering pipe 1, in a heat exchanger or Intermediate refrigerator 16, before directing the mixture to the chamber of combustion 9.

Although an internal combustion engine is a relatively inefficient power converter, total production of energy of the present equipment is great, because the heat of the gas of exhaust is used to heat the gas supply, and by consequent to boost the endothermic reaction in the vessel of reactor 2.

The solution illustrated above for the heat transfer from the hot exhaust gas of the engine internal combustion to the reactor, can be implemented by others ways other than described before. As an example, some of the heat of the exhaust gas can be used to directly heat the bed of catalyst in reactor vessel 2, p. eg, by gas exhaust or part of it that is passed through channels through of the catalyst bed, and some of the heat can be used to heat the gas that enters before it enters the container of the reactor 2. Direct heating of the bed of the catalyst in the reactor vessel 2 in order to achieve a high conversion through a high temperature throughout the bed of catalyst, including at the outlet end.

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Example

The following simulation exemplifies a device or power converter in accordance with this invention as described above and shown in the figure one:

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TABLE 1 Balancing the reactor mass

one

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TABLE 2 Power balance for the converter Energy

2

The carbon fibers produced in this model they add 3.6 kg of coal per hour. In the model, these fibers of coal are considered a product, and enter the model with a 7.2 kW energy efficiency.

In addition, the model is based on a situation ideal, among other things, without heat loss. It also can combustion of the purge gas from the pipe 13 in the chamber of combustion 9, or combustion can be done for the direct heating of the reactor vessel or the supply of gas to it, which would at least partially compensate for the loss of heat experienced in practice.

The equipment described above can be built as a compact and relatively small unit that can be used to the conversion of energy without CO2 in sparsely populated areas, p. eg, in the form of small power plants possibly mobile for electric power. These units can be used in ships, mobile or fixed offshore installations, vehicles terrestrial and also other isolated sites. Instead of releasing CO2, the carbon can be removed relatively Easy to handle, like carbon filaments.

In order for the device to have a level of acceptable noise and energy efficiency, the heat exchangers heat 11, 12 should preferably be combined with silencers in order to minimize the pressure drop on the exhaust side of the combustion chamber.

Carbon filaments can have many different applications. As mentioned before, you can use for the transport of hydrogen, since they can be adsorbed relatively large amounts of hydrogen over these carbon filaments As an example, it has been published that you can store more than 23 liters per gram of coal. After separating hydrogen again, coal can be regenerated and reused to store hydrogen

In addition, the carbon filaments in the form of microfibers have a potential use in composite materials, plastics, etc. for the reinforcement of these. In addition, they can be used as catalyst supports, as well as for adsorption of different gases

In addition to the unit described above, you can provide for different alterations and modifications.

Claims (11)

1. A method to convert to coal gaseous hydrocarbons extracted from a natural deposit of hydrocarbons, whose method comprises contacting said gaseous hydrocarbon at an elevated temperature in a reactor with a catalyst capable of converting said hydrocarbon into carbon e hydrogen; separate the hydrogen produced from the hydrocarbon no converted; burn said hydrogen to generate energy; and use the energy generated to heat said reactor or the flow of gaseous hydrocarbon thereto, or to heat or feed equipment  It consumes heat or energy. 2. A method according to claim 1, in the that the energy generated is used to heat said reactor or the gaseous hydrocarbon flow to it. 3. A method according to claim 1, in the that the generated energy is used to power a generator of electricity. 4. A method according to any one of the claims 1 to 3, wherein said catalyst is in particles 5. A method according to any one of the claims 1 to 4, wherein said catalyst is a metal Raney 6. A method according to any one of the claims 1 to 4, wherein said catalyst comprises a Selected element of Ni, Co and Fe. 7. A method according to any one of the claims 1 to 6, wherein said catalyst is in particles with a modal particle size of 1 to 300 µm. 8. A method according to any one of the claims 1 to 6, wherein the hydrogen is burned in an engine Internal combustion 9. A method according to any one of the claims 1 to 8, wherein the hydrogen is separated from the unconverted hydrocarbon using a membrane permeable to hydrogen. 10. A team to convert hydrocarbon carbon gas, said equipment comprising a container of reactor (2) having a gas inlet valve (18) and a gas outlet valve (19); a separator (4) to separate hydrogen from a gas containing hydrocarbon and hydrogen; a gas conduit (3) from said valve gas outlet to said separator; a combustion chamber (9) arranged to burn hydrogen from said separator to generate energy; Y an energy transfer (11) arranged to transfer energy from said combustion chamber to said reactor vessel or to additional equipment that consumes heat or energy (20). 11. A device according to claim 9, which It also includes an electricity generator (20) powered by the energy of said combustion chamber.